Violinist Serena McKinney leads a diverse musical life as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral performer.
She is the founding violinist of the internationally heralded Janaki String Trio, winners of the 2006 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, and praised by the New Yorker and by the New York Times as exhibiting “irresistible electricity.” Since her solo debut at age twelve, she has performed as soloist throughout the United States and Canada with orchestras such as the Houston, Minnesota, and Cincinnati symphonies and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center and at the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Ojai music festivals.

Ms. McKinney has performed under noted conductors, including James Conlon, Alan Gilbert, David Zinman, and John Adams, and has collaborated with artists such as Martin Chalifour, Menahem Pressler, Paul Katz, and with New York-based new music group Signal Ensemble and ICE, the International Contemporary Ensemble. Ms. McKinney is active in film scoring in Los Angeles, recording with composers such as John Williams, Thomas Newman, Hans Zimmer and Randy Newman, and performs as a substitute violinist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the LA Opera.

She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and The Colburn School.
Ms. McKinney performs on a Joseph and Antonius Gagliano violin, c. 1740.

American violinist Jessica Guideri currently serves as Associate Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Assistant Principal Second Violin in the Pacific Symphony, and Associate Concertmaster of the Eastern Music Festival. She also performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, plays for recordings of major motion picture soundtracks, and is featured on the upcoming public television series the “All Star Orchestra,” comprised of musicians from major orchestras around the country, led by Gerard Schwarz.

Before moving to Southern California, Jessica was Associate Principal Second Violin of the Phoenix Symphony, and was awarded a position in the Seattle Symphony. She has also performed as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra in Germany, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and was invited as guest concertmaster of the Phoenix and Santa Barbara Symphonies.

Since her Carnegie Hall solo debut with the New York Youth Symphony, which James Oestreich of The New York Times called “a lovely account,” Ms. Guideri has performed as soloist with several orchestras, including the Queens Symphony, Westchester Symphony, and the Symphony Orchestra of Campinas in Brazil. She has also given numerous solo recitals, including appearances at Lincoln Center and Steinway Hall in New York.

An accomplished chamber musician, Jessica was the first violinist of the Fry Street Quartet, artists-in-residence at Utah State University. During her four years with the ensemble, they performed numerous concerts nationally and internationally, won prizes at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, were sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the U.S. Department of State as cultural ambassadors to the Balkan states, and worked with hundreds of students throughout the U.S. to promote arts education. Jessica performs each summer with the Eastern Chamber Players in North Carolina, and has performed in various chamber ensembles in such concert venues as Alice Tully, Merkin, and Weill Halls in New York.

Jessica has also served on the violin and chamber music faculties at San Diego State University, Utah State University, and the Eastern Music Festival.

Jessica received both the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in violin performance from the Juilliard School, where her teachers included Dorothy Delay, Masao Kawasaki, and Joel Smirnoff.

Taiwanese-American violist Che-Yen Chen has established himself as an active performer and educator. He is a founding member of the Formosa Quartet, recipient of the First-Prize and the Amadeus Prize winner of the 10th London International String Quartet Competition. Since winning the First-Prize in the 2003 William Primrose International Viola Competition and the “President Prize” of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, Chen has been described by the Dallas Morning News as a musician who “played with silken finesse, and with elegant singers’ feelings for timing, shape, color and articulation” and by San Diego Union Tribune as an artist whose “most impressive aspect of his playing was his ability to find not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music.”

Having served as principal violist of San Diego Symphony and the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, he has appeared as guest principal violist with Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada.

Hailed by the Los Angeles times for his “astonishing prowess,” cellist Coleman Itzkoff enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber & orchestral musician, and educator. Coleman has been a featured artist-in-residence at American Public Media's Performance Today, and has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras across the country, the most recent of which was his Walt Disney Concert Hall concerto debut. His most recent competition appearances include the 2016 Irving M. Klein International String Competition and the 2016 Boulder International Chamber Music ‘Art of Duo’ competition, in both of which he was a multiple prizewinner.

Coleman enjoys playing in the orchestra as well, and is currently the principal cellist of the American Youth Symphony and a frequent cellist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Coleman has collaborated with such distinguished artists as Midori, John O’Connor, Richie Hawley, Cho-Liang Lin, David Finckel, Johannes Moser, and Daniel Heifetz. Coleman is a regular performer at the Brooklyn concert series Bargemusic and has performed at festivals around the country, including Aspen Music Festival and School, the International Heifetz Institute, La Jolla SummerFest, YellowBarn, and Music@Menlo.
Aside from his performing career, Coleman is a gifted educator and communicator, teaching and performing outreach concerts in schools, community centers, and hospitals around the county. Through this work, Coleman was recently awarded the Cleveland Clinic Arts and Medicine Award in recognition of his contribution and performances for patients in the clinic.
Coleman was born in 1992 into a family of musicians and began his musical studies at the age of four in Cincinnati, OH. Coleman received his Bachelor’s of Music from Rice University and his Master’s Degree at the Thornton School of Music at USC under the tutelage of Ralph Kirshbaum. He performs on a 1740 Carlo Antonio Testore Cello, generously loaned to him by the Newman family of Los Angeles.

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David KaplanPiano

David Kaplan, pianist, has been called “excellent and adventurous” by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire” at the keyboard. He has appeared at London’s Barbican Centre, at Miami’s Arscht Center with Itzhak Perlman, and worked with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Recent appearances include the Ravinia Festival, Sarasota Opera House, National Gallery, and the Mondavi Center in Davis, CA. His recital, “New Dances of the League of David,” infusing Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze with 16 new works, was hailed one of the Best Classical Events of 2015 by the New York Times.

He is a core member of Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and the Artistic Director of Lyrica Chamber Music, a community series in Morris County, NJ celebrating its 30th season.
Kaplan holds a DMA from Yale, where he studied with Claude Frank; he previously studied with Walter Ponce at UCLA, where he is now Lecturer in Piano for 2016-17.
Kaplan has recorded for Naxos and Nonesuch labels, and is proud to be a Yamaha Artist. Away from the keyboard, he loves cartooning and cooking, and is mildly obsessed with classic cars.